Photos: Alain Vigneault, the good decisions, the bad decisions

File picture, Getty Images05.02.2012

Where Alain Vigneault’s been good: The coach isn’t known as a guy who’s that active in the dressing room. During his tenure in Vancouver, he gave players, especially veterans – like Henrik and Daniel Sedin – the freedom to run the room. And the responsibility to lead by example.

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Where Alain Vigneault’s been good: Not being afraid to put young defenceman Chris Tanev – so much less experienced than his teammates on the blue line -- onto the ice during last year’s Stanley Cup final against Boston. Here, back in January, Tanev kicks around with teammates Cory Schneider and Daniel Sedin.File picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been good: It would have been easy to play Roberto Luongo night after night, which is what Luongo had been used to for, pretty much, his entire career. And while, strategically, it made sense to showcase Cory Schneider this season, playing him in big games – and the playoffs – was an important message to send to Schneider’s teammates, the fans and the rest of the league. And it might just have led the Canucks to make a risky but determined decision about the franchise’s future.File picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been good: In mid-March of 2011, Manny Malhotra was struck in the eye by a puck. It was a near-catastrophic injury. While Malhotra came back to play in the Stanley Cup final and was a regular this past season, his overall game hasn’t been the same. Still, he was one of the best faceoff men in the league – and Vigneault recognized that, putting Malhotra onto the ice to take key defensive-zone faceoffs.File picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been good: Well, you could start with Alex Burrows – shown here after a goal against Los Angeles during this year’s playoffs. Not many guys go from the ECHL to the NHL. But Vigneault, coaching the Canucks’ farm team, brought him from the third tier to the second, and nurtured him there. It didn’t take long for Burrows to hit the big time. Kevin Bieksa, Jannik Hansen, Cory Schneider, Chris Tanev and Alex Edler have also blossomed under Vigneault.File picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been bad: Vigneault’s had tremendous success for six seasons as the Canucks’ head coach. He hasn’t won a Stanley Cup, but he’s done just about everything else. But during 2011-12 there were hints that, perhaps, the team and the coach were drifting apart. It’s a fact of life that, for the most part, the message the coach is delivering starts to get old at some point. And there certainly seems to be expiration dates in that job. That might just have been the case with Vigneault.Jeff Vinnick
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been bad: No better place to start than what happened in April: a team clearly ill-prepared for the playoffs. When it was all over, they confessed that they’d never been the same since that emotional early-January win over Boston. They showed little spark during the quick first-round loss to Los Angeles. It was as if they couldn’t wait to go bear-hunting in the off-season.Jeff Vinnick
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been bad: For a long time, the Canucks’ power play was something to reckon with. It was No. 1 during the 2010-11 season. And for a chunk of the 2011-12 season, it continued its pace. And then the power play went dry. While assistant coach Newell Brown deserves some of the blame, Vigneault was not quick enough to correct the problem – which plagued the Canucks right through their short postseason.File picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been bad: When Daniel Sedin missed the last batch of games before the playoffs, Vigneault had to make a big decision: who to play on the top line with Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows? Max Lapierre ended up there for a decent stint – the result of his coach’s hunch. It was a good hunch. But when the playoffs started, and Daniel Sedin hadn’t returned, Max Lapierre was returned to the nether reaches of the depth chart. If that was a hunch, it wasn’t as good. Lapierre had actually offered offence. David Booth didn’t.File Picture
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Where Alain Vigneault’s been bad: The Canucks organization was awfully high on Cody Hodgson when they drafted him in June 2008. But it seems that they were never quite so high on him again. And while Canucks GM Mike Gillis ripped him apart in last week’s post-mortem, the public pillaging started early, with Vigneault questioning the young prospect’s commitment and performance, when Hodgson was actually injured. The marriage between coach and prized recruit never seemed too strong.File picture
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